Downtime Activities
Not all of a character’s time is spent hunting down aliens and paranormal activities, or recovering extraterrestrial technology. Most operatives have lives and duties outside of the Conspiracy, and most of their time is spent there. In between the life-threatening and world-shaking operations undertaken by a Conspiracy cell, characters may participate in a number of Downtime activities.
After a mission is completed, the Handler should grant the players a number of weeks of Downtime, during which their characters may engage in any of the activities described below. Two weeks of Downtime is recommended for these purposes, although the actual interval between missions may in fact be much longer. The remainder of time is assumed to be taken up carrying out non-Conspiracy obligations. Each activity activity consumes at least a week of Downtime.
Convalescence: Even the most careful and well prepared teams run into situations that exceed their ability to handle them. All wars have casualties, and it is inevitable that the Agents will eventually run afoul of one of the myriad aliens, assassins, or supernatural entities they combat regularly. Providing the characters are not sent home in small boxes, chances are they will have some extensive recuperating to do. Whether this convalescence takes place within the Cell or in a hospital depends on the facilities available. Providing the characters are conscious, they may undergo therapy if necessary.
Extending Influence: Characters may attempt secret arrangements and deniable alliances with shadowy figures in darkened halls and service corridors across the nation. Through pacts made and information shared, these Conspiracy operatives secure further power and authority. Any character may elect, during Downtime, to attempt to expand his power base and increase his Influence Quality rating. This is done by spending experience points, although the player must state that he is using his Downtime to increase his Influence in this way. Players should remember that raising the Influence Quality usually requires increasing the character’s Status, Resources, or Military Rank Qualities. Handlers may also allow Agents to extend their Influence by assigning a standard difficulty check to increase their contacts. An Extended Admin/Legal (or Carousing, or other suitable skill, depending upon the circumstances) should be used. With sufficient Success Levels, a “breakthrough” should result in the agent gaining experience points that can be spent purely upon raising his Influence. This may become more difficult as the agent’s Influence grows.
Instruction and Training: Many characters elect to spend Downtime training and learning new skills. The character should have access to a training facility capable of providing the desired instruction, which rationalizes any experience points spent on gaining or increasing a certain skill. This also works for combat skills (with suitable ammunition and practice ranges) and martial arts (with a dojo and qualified instructor). With a proper instructor, extra experience points can be gained through use of the Instruction skill. These extra points can only be used to raise the skill being taught.
Research and Development: The success of The Conspiracies' ongoing operations depends heavily on R&D work. Such work provides vital information regarding the aliens’ strengths and weaknesses, analysis of weaponry and craft, and development of new weapons and countermeasures. Some cells are devoted solely to research and conduct little, if any, field work themselves. Although the players’ cell will undoubtedly focus heavily on active investigation and hazardous missions, Downtime research will still play an important role in its operations.
The research and development possibilities available to the cell are limited only by the players’ imaginations and the resources of the cell. Reverse-engineering and replicating alien technology, designing new weapons, analyzing extraterrestrial specimens for weaknesses to exploit, and devising new arcane rituals are all research areas routinely pursued by Conspiracy cells. Handlers will decide what information or developments are gained from such research and should be resolved as a research project. Resource Accumulation: After several missions, the cell may find its resources slowly dwindling, as consumables such as ammo and medical supplies are used up and equipment taken into the field is lost or damaged. The cell may also decide at some point to expand its operations, build new facilities, and recruit more staff. It may even decide to create a child Cell and provide it with some extra resources. To accomplish all this, operatives may elect to spend their Downtime arranging to have new equipment and supplies discreetly shipped to the Cell or have new facilities built and the work orders lost.
A character that spends his Downtime accumulating may spend a number of Resource Points equal to his Influence Quality rating on cell resources. The same restrictions apply to the expenditure of RP as during cell creation. Sometimes an agent wants something that is beyond his Resource Point gain in one Downtime session. The cell has two alternatives. Cell members may pool Resource Points of the same Influence Quality type. Otherwise, agents may hold RP until the next session of Downtime. In this case, however, one RP is lost from each agent’s pool each week of non-Downtime unless a Routine Willpower and Routine Admin/Legal check is passed.
Pulling Strings: Agents may expend some of their influence to secure the right connections to right people to be able to get things done when needed. A character may acquire a pulling stings that they meet the requirements of by expending the listed amount of XP. A may not have a combination of pulling stings that exceneds their value of approriate Influnce.
Therapy: After years (often less) of fighting a covert war against a largely unseen menace from outer space and witnessing, even conducting, questionable experiments and arcane rituals, it is not uncommon to find Conspiracy operatives a trifle unhinged. Not surprisingly, instances of paranoia, aggression, and schizophrenia are common among Aegis veterans. A few weeks of Downtime spent in psychological therapy and treatment can prevent borderline individuals from becoming liabilities to their cell.
Agents may reduce their stress level by one full step for each week spent in Therapy.
After a mission is completed, the Handler should grant the players a number of weeks of Downtime, during which their characters may engage in any of the activities described below. Two weeks of Downtime is recommended for these purposes, although the actual interval between missions may in fact be much longer. The remainder of time is assumed to be taken up carrying out non-Conspiracy obligations. Each activity activity consumes at least a week of Downtime.
Convalescence: Even the most careful and well prepared teams run into situations that exceed their ability to handle them. All wars have casualties, and it is inevitable that the Agents will eventually run afoul of one of the myriad aliens, assassins, or supernatural entities they combat regularly. Providing the characters are not sent home in small boxes, chances are they will have some extensive recuperating to do. Whether this convalescence takes place within the Cell or in a hospital depends on the facilities available. Providing the characters are conscious, they may undergo therapy if necessary.
Extending Influence: Characters may attempt secret arrangements and deniable alliances with shadowy figures in darkened halls and service corridors across the nation. Through pacts made and information shared, these Conspiracy operatives secure further power and authority. Any character may elect, during Downtime, to attempt to expand his power base and increase his Influence Quality rating. This is done by spending experience points, although the player must state that he is using his Downtime to increase his Influence in this way. Players should remember that raising the Influence Quality usually requires increasing the character’s Status, Resources, or Military Rank Qualities. Handlers may also allow Agents to extend their Influence by assigning a standard difficulty check to increase their contacts. An Extended Admin/Legal (or Carousing, or other suitable skill, depending upon the circumstances) should be used. With sufficient Success Levels, a “breakthrough” should result in the agent gaining experience points that can be spent purely upon raising his Influence. This may become more difficult as the agent’s Influence grows.
Instruction and Training: Many characters elect to spend Downtime training and learning new skills. The character should have access to a training facility capable of providing the desired instruction, which rationalizes any experience points spent on gaining or increasing a certain skill. This also works for combat skills (with suitable ammunition and practice ranges) and martial arts (with a dojo and qualified instructor). With a proper instructor, extra experience points can be gained through use of the Instruction skill. These extra points can only be used to raise the skill being taught.
Research and Development: The success of The Conspiracies' ongoing operations depends heavily on R&D work. Such work provides vital information regarding the aliens’ strengths and weaknesses, analysis of weaponry and craft, and development of new weapons and countermeasures. Some cells are devoted solely to research and conduct little, if any, field work themselves. Although the players’ cell will undoubtedly focus heavily on active investigation and hazardous missions, Downtime research will still play an important role in its operations.
The research and development possibilities available to the cell are limited only by the players’ imaginations and the resources of the cell. Reverse-engineering and replicating alien technology, designing new weapons, analyzing extraterrestrial specimens for weaknesses to exploit, and devising new arcane rituals are all research areas routinely pursued by Conspiracy cells. Handlers will decide what information or developments are gained from such research and should be resolved as a research project. Resource Accumulation: After several missions, the cell may find its resources slowly dwindling, as consumables such as ammo and medical supplies are used up and equipment taken into the field is lost or damaged. The cell may also decide at some point to expand its operations, build new facilities, and recruit more staff. It may even decide to create a child Cell and provide it with some extra resources. To accomplish all this, operatives may elect to spend their Downtime arranging to have new equipment and supplies discreetly shipped to the Cell or have new facilities built and the work orders lost.
A character that spends his Downtime accumulating may spend a number of Resource Points equal to his Influence Quality rating on cell resources. The same restrictions apply to the expenditure of RP as during cell creation. Sometimes an agent wants something that is beyond his Resource Point gain in one Downtime session. The cell has two alternatives. Cell members may pool Resource Points of the same Influence Quality type. Otherwise, agents may hold RP until the next session of Downtime. In this case, however, one RP is lost from each agent’s pool each week of non-Downtime unless a Routine Willpower and Routine Admin/Legal check is passed.
Pulling Strings: Agents may expend some of their influence to secure the right connections to right people to be able to get things done when needed. A character may acquire a pulling stings that they meet the requirements of by expending the listed amount of XP. A may not have a combination of pulling stings that exceneds their value of approriate Influnce.
Therapy: After years (often less) of fighting a covert war against a largely unseen menace from outer space and witnessing, even conducting, questionable experiments and arcane rituals, it is not uncommon to find Conspiracy operatives a trifle unhinged. Not surprisingly, instances of paranoia, aggression, and schizophrenia are common among Aegis veterans. A few weeks of Downtime spent in psychological therapy and treatment can prevent borderline individuals from becoming liabilities to their cell.
Agents may reduce their stress level by one full step for each week spent in Therapy.
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